Monday, August 24, 2009

The First Cup of Vacation

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading lately that I need a vacation.

We are on vacation.

It's the kind of vacation where you change your location but not necessarily your chores, responsibilities or company.

You change your pace, you change all your colors.

You change the how you do things.

And see different things until you see with different eyes.

And hopefully with your different eyes you can find the pieces of yourself that you scattered about or ignored.

That's only when you let yourself relax into it. It doesn't work if you let the responsibility part overwhelm the change part.

I made some important decisions this year, because I need to recharge this time.

Decision the first: I took the train. Travelling in the car is stressful for me. I am not fond of cars, driving is not freedom for me. I am from a city where the transit system works and I am a child of an era where independence was expected. A bus pass is freedom - driving is responsibility.

You had to wait for a license and be able to afford a car - a bus pass took you all the way from Ancient Egypt to Post Modern before third grade.

So the train took away a great deal of the stress.

Decision the second: A long vacation. The problems with a "quick trip" or a multiple stop trip - there is no unwinding, you are always preparing to go to the next place - the extended family, the vacation spot, home. Day 1 travel, Day 2 recover from travel, Day 3 relax, Day 4 anticipate leaving, Day 5 travel.

Ridiculous - Silly Humans thinking that is anything like a vacation.

12 days - with no long drives. Much better.

And I am back in the real Northeast, with my Dearest Friend and My Perfectly Normal Husband. The Boy and His Girl, and The Girl of the House.

And some Poppets.

How does this go? I packed quickly due a change in circumstances that said "If you really want enough time you need to be on a train in three hours" and I told those circumstances "Damn Straight!" and in packing surveyed the Poppets to ask who would like to come to Massachusetts with us. To my surprise the Coffee Poppets said that they would like to go.

I didn't know they travelled.

They do now. Winter and the Most Adventurous Red are with me too, but the Coffee Poppets have understood the nature of this very necessary vacation best. They saw the change in light, they assessed the situation and determined that yes, it was a very good place to relax and do the things they liked to do in a slightly different way. And you might well remember that they are quite opinionated about what should be done. They were very pleased that the local establishment provided the necessary tools with a great deal of local flavor.

Organic? Of course! Free Trade? Of course!

Unpretentious Name? Excellent - very different from home - no need to put on airs here. It will do.

They took the beans to the grinder.

They wondered why we do not have purples in our packaging at home. They came up with a theory that salespeople were afraid that we might not recognize coffee beans if the bags aren't coffee colored and determined that they thought the purple was cheery.

Coffee should be cheery. And Mandatory.

The grinder was the same manufacturer as the one at home but quite different in form and function.

How wonderful! We can learn a new grinder! What a great vacation.

This grinder is far more Poppet Friendly than the one at home. There is a balcony to watch the beans on their transformation to become coffee.

It's like when Humans get to watch a hibachi chef prepare their meals.

There is pleasure in watching the process.

The coffee maker is much different than the one at home. It is larger.

Here in Massachusetts we use a reusable gold filter. Others humans drink coffee here - so I do not drink alone.

They make a note to try harder to find a gold filter for home.

This machine is also more Poppet friendly and they measure themselves against their favorite kind of ruler.

They are five and a half cups tall.

The selection of mug is terribly important for taste and temperature.

It affects the coffee.

Sometimes containers are as important as content.

The cups and creamers are an amalgam of people and places literally over one hundred years. The house we are in is the house of a shipwright, the wood from a beloved ship involving the member of the Very Dearest Friend's family. The house was built by an Auntie.

Probably the cups are not the age of the house, but they do span the decades and have an appropriately rustic feel.

The Highly Caffeinated Coffee Poppet finds a mug that is reminiscent of the china at home that we use for High Tea. However like the house itself it is somewhat softer, older and gentler.

Still this is not the right mug for the first cup of Vacation Coffee

This one is promising, it looks very peaceful.

Vacation mornings should be peaceful.

A vacation mug should hold coffee for a long period of lingering over breakfast conversation with one's Very Dearest Friend.

Yes this will do.

It's vacation, use half and half instead of skim.

Look local Peach Bread!

They discus the possibility of having Peach Bread at the Poppet Cafe.

In order to determine that we should actually examine the Peach Bread.

It seems like it might like to be toasted, very, very, lightly.

OK .

Ready.

Start your Vacation.

Peach Bread is excellent when lightly toasted.

The light here is different.

It has a brighter, bluer quality.

Today we will do familiar things differently.

Tomorrow we will do new things comfortably.

Coffee Poppets apparently travel well and make excellent vacation companions.

working on seeing with different eyes...exactly. perhaps with enough peach bread, coffee, and time it will come. I find that while the effort to do so is neccessary, it is not always sufficient. Something has to change... a location, a habit. Something.

Here is to long bike rides and leisurly cups of coffee, to a change in light.

About Me

What it's all about.

This is a mix of journal, photography and continuing stories. It is what happens when Van Winkle Wakes Up and has to relearn the way around.

Continuing stories are linked together if you'd like to avoid the journal parts. Stories are listed with the most recent entry at the top when you click the link. If you'd like to read it in order, please start at the bottom and read up.

Tiny Alien - a finished story - starts with a "Table of Contents" link so you can read it in order.